Business & Sales Tax Licenses

Yes! All businesses operating within the city of Westminster are required to have a valid business license per Westminster Municipal Code.
Apply for your license in the GenTax portal. Your application goes through several stages before it is fully approved. Each location must be licensed, although if they are all operating under the same FEIN, they may reside in one account.

Additionally, you may be required to apply for a Specialty License. These license types include Amusement Machine Licenses, Security Guard Licenses, Pet Shop Licenses, and Solid Waste Removal Licenses. More details about each license type are available here.

If you plan on selling liquor at your business, you will also need to apply for a Liquor license. For more information, please visit the liquor licensing website.

Home based businesses will be asked to fill out a supplemental form stating their use is in compliance § 11-4-10 of the Westminster Municipal Code. Once approved, home occupation licenses do not expire.

Out of city businesses still need a business license. Apply in the same portal as other licenses. Your license does not expire

Yes, every business operating within the city needs a license. 
Each year, you will file a $0 return. For questions about this, please reach out to the sales tax department at 303-658-2065 orsalestax@westminsterco.gov.

There is no cost or renewal fee for business/sales tax licenses.
Specialty Licenses and Liquor Licenses have separate fees.

Please reach out to the City Clerk’s office (303-658-2161, licensing@westminsterco.gov) or the Sales Tax Office (303-658-2065, salestax@westminsterco.gov) for help with this.

Depending on the type of license, full approval can take up to 4 – 6 weeks.

In your portal, click the “More” tab. Your licenses is accessible under the Business License tab.

You can print it out or save it to a place that you can easily access.

We no longer mail paper renewal forms. All renewals are done through the Portal.
When you are 60 days away from your license expiration, you will receive a notification via the registered email to renew your license in the portal. Login to the portal and click into the “Action Center.” Your renewal will appear there.
Note: Out of City and Home Occupation businesses do NOT need to renew their licenses.

Many things can be updated in your online portal, including address changes, adding a location, and closing a location. Unfortunately, the portal is unable to update legal or DBA names. If you need to change the name of your business, please reach out to the City Clerk’s office (303-658-2161, licensing@westminsterco.gov).

There are two ways you can close your account. You can login to the portal, click the “More” tab, and under “Manage Locations,” click “Cease a Location.” This is the preferred method since you will still have access to the portal even after your account is closed and therefore will have access to 7 years of tax filing information. You can also send an email to licensing@westminsterco.gov with your account name, number, address, and the date and reason for closure. You will not have access to tax information in the portal if you close using this method.

Once you have logged into the portal, click on “Manage My Profile” in the top, right corner. In the “More” tab, under “Access Management,” click on “Manage Third Party Access.” Then click “Grant Access to a Third Party.” For a Secondary user, under “My Users,” select “Manage Secondary Logons,” then click “Add.”